I’m working on a Top 100 review right now, and I’m struggling to make a case for anyone above Pirates RHP Paul Skenes. Sure, Jackson Holliday is a safe bet given the fact that every pitcher has been seriously injured, but Skenes is a unicorn, I’m inclined to stop treating him as a regular baseball player. Part of it is the struggle to keep my brain active only in the realm of fantasy baseball, where it makes sense to pick hitters over pitchers 99.9 percent of the time. I think this sounds like 0.1 percent of the time, and it’s hard to imagine any baseball teams taking another chance on Skenes. A guy like him can carry you into the playoffs, if he ever makes the playoffs, especially if he’s paired with another dynamite young arm like Jared Jones. I ranked Skenes 12th in Top 25 Fantasy Prospects: Opening Day 2024, and I feel like a fool for that today. I was worried about his health given how long it had been since we last saw him play and how he finished 2023, but that is a distant memory now.
Atlanta RHP Hurston Waldrep (22, AA) is another 2023 draftee weighing up the program. He had an April (1.89 WHIP) before settling in May (1.05 WHIP), but he’s not a shiny bauble in the organization. That honor goes to RHP Owen Murphy (20, A+), who will soon join Waldrep in Mississippi. Through 41 innings spread over seven starts (that’s about six innings, if you’re counting at home), Murphy has a 0.73 WHIP and a 31 percent strikeout-minus-walk rate. The 20th overall pick in the 2022 draft, Murphy has been cutting down on home runs, but his off-speed command has taken a leap this year and pushed his strikeout rate into the stratosphere.
Dodgers 2B OF Miguel Vargas (24) struggled during his rookie year after suffering a broken pinkie in February and a sprained ankle in April and a mechanical problem that may have been born from compensatory efforts in the kinetic chain. The team didn’t really have anyone else to cover second base at the time, so Vargas kept trying to play through the pain. Fast forward a year, and a healthy red-hot Vargas is coming as 3B Max Muncy heads off the injured list with James Outman down to Triple-A. In 39 games, Vargas has eight homers, eight steals and a slash line of .295/.436/.583. He also has more walks (34) than strikeouts (30). I’ve seen speculation that he’ll be relegated to the short side of the platoon with Jason Heyward, but I’d be surprised if that was his final destination. He can play multiple positions and has 304 plate appearances in half a season for a team that finished first last year in plate appearances alone. I will make him trade offers to one or two teams.
I might also send a gift or two out Drew Jones Diamondbacks (A), who has shown significant improvement over the past month, slashing .338/.448/.521 with a 16.1 to 26.4 strikeout rate in 21 games since April 17. His season average is still 36.1 percentile because of a bad start, so there may be a small window here where the stats don’t match the skills. It will be up to the league whether or not the hype dies down enough to make Jones available, but it doesn’t hurt to check. In a league where it’s been a minute since someone tried to pick first and then took Jones over Holliday, almost nobody is on the market. In the league that started this year, when someone is downgraded, it is possible that he is a replacement asset for the opponent.
Another high profile to do well, National RHP Andry Lara (21, AA) was arguably the best arm at his international level but had posted ERAs in the fours and fives over the course of his career entering 2024, which he opened with a return trip to High-A after pitching 98.1 innings there last year the past. It got better this time around, and he finished ranked after 30.2 innings with a 2.35 ERA and 1.04 WHIP. He wasn’t bothered by the new standard in his Double-A debut, either, throwing 6.1 shutout innings with a 0.95 WHIP. I had him at the end of my download list a few times on Razz30 before he was taken by someone else, and now I’m sad.
Guards SS Angel Genao (19, A) fits Cleveland’s prototype of a switch-hitting center fielder with good plate skills and excellent hands in both the field and the batter’s box. He returned to Low-A to start the season after getting eight starts in 2022 and 72 last year. He is in 32 games this year with a slash line of .313/.357/.531 with five home runs and four stolen bases. Probably won’t be in Low-A for long. And today is his birthday. Happy Birthday, Angel!
I decided, Mick! (Guys I’ve dropped in dynasty leagues)
If you love something, sometimes you have to give it up. When it comes back, you were meant to be together. It was not pleasant to part with me Diamondbacks BY Kristian Robinson (23, AA) in a 15-team league where I have an immediate start at first base, but I need that roster spot to hunt for suitable minor league outfielders and shortstops that I can switch in and out of my lineup. I still have K-Rob in the 20-team and 30-team lineups, but his days may be numbered there as well, given his .159/.250/.159 slash line in 19 games. It’s not that I’m out of it. It’s just that I think I’ll be the first to notice if he starts hitting again, which gives me the edge to pick him up if needed, and man I hope so.
In the same league that I pulled the plug on Robinson, Athletics RHP Gunnar Hoglund (24, AA) had just closed a roster spot. He has been in that squad twice this year. I’ll bet he’s back at some point, but right now, I don’t really need a pitcher with a 15.9 percent K-BB rate and 4.63 ERA in Double-A.
Thanks for reading!
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